


Any Time Padfoot

by letsdancetojoydivision



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Remus Lupin/Sirius Black if you squint, but it's happy I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-23
Updated: 2012-11-23
Packaged: 2017-11-19 08:07:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/571058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsdancetojoydivision/pseuds/letsdancetojoydivision
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during Order of the Phoenix.  A surprise attack over the identity of the marauders leave Sirius and Remus reminiscing about the good old days, and Fred and George furious that their mate didn't tell them who their heroes were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Time Padfoot

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, so this is also posted on ff.net under my original name of Bulls in Brooklyn.

The argument finished as they typically did between the pair.

"God, can you just be serious and listen to me?" Remus shouted, frustrated beyond belief.

"I am Sirius." Sirius said, deadpan.

Remus closed his eyes and sighed deeply, slumping into a chair, smiling wryly despite himself.

"Padfoot, you're a tool."

Sirius gave him his best winning smile.

"Ah, Moony, you love me for it." his grin dropped, and he sighed, scrunching his face with frustration, "It's just being in this house again, you know? I just..." He sighed again, rubbing his hand up and over his face, through his long hair.

Remus got up and put his arm around Sirius's shoulder. "I know Padfoot. But sometimes you just need to-" He sighed, "Look after yourself a bit more. You're on the run. I know that you know!" he said quickly, raising his hand to quell Sirius's angry retort. "But sometimes, you don't act like it."

He plastered a fake smile on his face, ignoring Sirius's scowl, "And Harry's coming in a couple of days! Maybe you could clean yourself up a bit, cut your hair or something. Spend some time on yourself, rather than on this house."

Sirius nodded, acknowledging his words, but still muttered gruffly, "Harry has seen me looking worse, I doubt he cares..."

Remus's answer was cut off by two loud, increasingly familiar and increasingly irritating cracking noises. Fred and George appeared at the foot of the stairs, both looking gobsmacked.

"Sirius, Remus." George began, looking at each one in turn with the same "I've just been hit in the back of the head with something heavy, and I still can't quite believe it yet" expression that Fred was wearing.

"So, we couldn't help overhearing," Fred continued.

"Well, listening in anyway," said George, holding up two pieces of string for some inexplicable reason.

"And, well," Fred said, "We heard something that sparked our interest somewhat."

"I shudder to think..." Remus muttered.

George continued on as if he had not heard the interruption. "There was something you said Remus."

"And then you Sirius." Fred added, looking very seriously between the two of them.

"Just spit it out!" Sirius growled.

"Padfoot! And Moony!" Fred shouted.

Remus and Sirius raised their eyebrows, confused. Of all the things they had been expecting to hear, this was not one of them.

"Yeah?" Sirius said, giving them questioning looks, "They were our nicknames for each other, Moony cos he.... well, for obvious reasons," he said, sparing Remus a quick glance, "And Padfoot because I'm a dog."

"Although we did know that well before you became an animagus." Remus muttered quietly.

"Moony!" Sirius sent Remus a scandalised look, "That was uncalled for!"

Remus chuckled and was about to reply when George broke in,

"Sorry to interrupt the domestic, but back to the topic at hand."

Fred looked very excited, a wicked smile stretching across his face, "You see, we've only read those names once before. On a map."

Sirius gave them both shocked looks before bursting out into laughter.

Remus looked between the two twins, who were both looking at them with a mixture of incredulity and anticipation. "How did you two get the map?" His face froze, "Oh my lord, your poor teachers."

"So it  _is_ you two then! You guys wrote the marauder's map!" said Fred, looking like he was about to meet his hero.

Sirius stopped laughing briefly enough to say, "Yes, oh my lord yes." He snorted before continuing, "Yeah we wrote the map, God, years ago now. But wait, I thought Harry had the map?"

Fred started bursting out with the tale of how they had so generously bequeathed the map to Harry, but George interrupted, "Wait, so you know Harry has the map? And he knows that you guys wrote it?"

Remus nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

Fred looked betrayed, "That little  _traitor_! We gave him the map, out of the goodness of our hearts and he doesn't tell us that not only does he know who the marauders are, but one of them is his _godfather_?"

"And of course that his father was one of them." Sirius broke in.

"WHAT?!" He got twin looks of outrage.

"Harry is so coming off the Christmas card list," Fred muttered.

"You have to think though, he found out when I was still on the run, and you guys had no idea I wasn't a crazy, murdering psychopath. It's not like he could tell you two." Sirius said.

"Plus I was a teacher, no way you would have believed I would have written that." Remus said, "But oh lord, I feel terrible. Now that I've been on the other side of it, I kind of feel bad that it fell into  _your_  hands of all people!"

Again, the twin looks of outrage.

"Are you implying that somehow, we are not trustworthy?"

"Exactly that."

The twins shrugged.

"Fair enough." said Fred.

"So wait, are you saying that James Potter was one of the marauders?" inquired George.

Sirius nodded gruffly.

"Awesome." Fred said dreamily. "Which one was he? And who was the other one?"

Sirius clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "James was Prongs, he was a stag. And the other scum-sucking, disgusting creature was Peter Pettigrew."

George looked taken aback. "The guy you were supposed to have killed?"

Sirius gave a somewhat unnerving smile. "The one I  _would_  have killed, given the chance. Still would."

The twins looked a little thrown, and Fred changed the topic, clearly wanting to move to a less provoking one.

"That map has been a godsend, seriously! We couldn't have done half the stuff we did without it!"

"I guess thanks are in order." George said.

"Or worship." Fred added.

Remus laughed. "Just don't tell McGonagall and we're even. She'd still kill me."

Sirius, now having gotten himself under control, gave a somewhat unconvincing grin. "I'll admit it, I still kind of expect her to start yelling at me everytime I suggest something more, shall we say, marauderish, in meetings."

Fred and George's ears pricked up at the mention of the Order meetings. Sirius continued on, oblivious. "I must say, that has been partly a good thing." He smiled fondly up at Remus, not seeing his increasingly obvious signals to stop talking. "It's also when I miss James the most. He would always come up with the most daring, impossible ideas that were always absolutely brilliant, and then often enough, pull them off. It was great the first time 'round, never would have done as much as we did, nor survived half of it either if it weren't for James." He lapsed off into fond remembrance to Remus's great and obvious relief.

The twins were still looking a somewhat awe-struck. "Still can't quite believe it," George said, "No offence mate, but Remus, you don't exactly come off as a trouble-maker."

Sirius laughed, while Remus smiled, a wicked grin that neither of the twins had ever seen on his face before. "Exactly," Remus smirked, "I was the getaway car, as you might have it. Despite his best efforts, Sirius was never quite able to pull off the innocent expression. Too busy laughing his arse off at the results to be honest."

The twins started a bit at the uncharacteristic phrasing. "This is the oldest line in the universe, but who are you and what have you done with Remus Lupin?" Fred said, raising an eyebrow.

Sirius laughed again. "Ahh Moony, my dear friend, I've missed you."

"Good to be back Pads," Remus said, winking, face still showing a hint of that wicked grin. "What?" He said to the shocked-looking twins "You two thought I was just a goody-two-shoes? I hung out with Sirius Black and James Potter! I wasn't completely innocent, I just looked it. I  _had_  to look it, most of the time." He laughed softly at some remembered joke.

"It's just... Wow." George said.

"Moony has that affect on lots of people." Sirius said sagely.

Remus laughed, shoving Sirius lightly. "Idiot."

"Smartarse."

"Dog."

"Big Bad Wolf."

"Stop it before I charm your hair blonde again and call you Goldilocks for a week, we all remember how that turned out."

Sirius laughed, "I was so mad at you. That was a good one, I don't think I ever complimented you on that one."

Remus smiled, "Anything to stop you saying that. It was worse than James and 'my furry little problem'." He stopped and said wistfully, "Say what you wanted about James, he had a great way of phrasing."

Sirius sighed, half-fondly, half-sadly. "Yeah, I remember. Remember what he used to do whenever he was off his face?"

Remus grinned, "The songs?"

Sirius laughed, "Yeah, the songs. Man, he was a terrible singer, even worse when he was pissed."

"Remember that one, the one about the marauders he made up?"

"The one that didn't scan, or rhyme and was so completely terrible and sappy that we wrote it down to mock him with later?"

"Yep." Remus snorted, "I can still remember half the words to it."

They both looked at each other before bursting out singing,

"And the day we met, (Oh what a day!),

With Moony in his giant robes, (he was so  _little!_ )

And Padfoot with his super slick haircut (Oh so stylish!)

Wormtail tripping over everything (what a PRAT!)

And the most beloved of all

Oh so lovely

Mr. Prongs, (so  _handsome!_ )

Ummm can't think of anymore words (words!)

But my singing is so good (good!)

YEAH!"

They both were struggling to continue singing by the end of it, they were laughing so hard. They panted out the last few lines, pumping their fists with the "Yeah!" as James had done, before he had fallen over and passed out. They were both laughing so hard that they had failed to notice that the twins had left sometime around the point Remus had called Sirius a dog, muttering about revenge and old married couples.

Sirius sobered up first, still chuckling a little while saying, "Ah, it's good to laugh like that, I haven't done that for a  _long_  time." He sighed deeply, "Near 14 years now to be perfectly honest."

"Yeah." Remus said. "Feels like that to me too."

Sirius smiled sadly, before running his hands through his hair and standing up quickly. "You know what Moony? I think I will cut my hair. Feel a bit like the old Sirius you know?"

Remus mirrored his smile, "That'd be good Siri."

Sirius was startled into a laugh, "Hey! The boys are gone. Good thing too, no one can hear you call me Siri. You haven't done that in  _years_." He laughed a little, quietly. "Remember when I tried to retaliate and call you Remie?"

Remus laughed, a little embarrassed, "Yeah, complete flop, just didn't work did it?"

Sirius nodded slowly, still clearly expecting an explanation.

Remus sighed, "Don't know why I said it, just kind of slipped out. Brought me back though. That was the one thing not even James could get away with, only I could call you Siri, remember? James would get so mad." He trailed off, before adding quietly. "I have to admit, sometimes it felt good to have that one thing, that was just you and me. It just felt right to say it, you know?"

"Yeah Moony, I know." Sirius clapped a hand on Remus's shoulder. "Alright, say goodbye to this mop, because it's going away now, preferably forever. Long hair is inconvenient. It just kind of fit in with the whole prisoner vibe I've been going for." He winked as Remus rolled his eyes.

"Always need to coordinate the outfit, don't you Siri?" Remus laughed, shaking his head.

"Of course, my fashion challenged friend. I knew you'd learn in the end." He ruffled Remus's hair, and with a moment's indecision, swooped down to give him a quick hug, whispering "Thanks," in his ear, before quickly stepping up the stairs.

So he didn't hear Remus's whispered reply of "Any time Padfoot. Any time."


End file.
